San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-10-27
.COLORS AND EMOTIONS.
THE SENSE Or COLOR AS OLD AS
THE GNAWlNG OF HUNGER.
Red Associated with Violent Mental I'm
pressions-Bluo tho Color Mysterious
and Hoiy-"Red Words" Of swinburnc.
Yellow and Green.


Pressions-Blue tho Color Mysterious
and Hoiy-"Red Words" Of swinburnc.
Yellow and Green.
The theories Of Gladstone and Magnus
that tho mon of the Homeric era were
color blind, because Of the absence from
the Homeric poems Of certain words ex-
pressivc of certain colors, have been dis
proved by more thorough modern re-
search. The primitive mans sense Of
color, or the sensitlveness of his retina to
ether vibrations, pay not have been as
fine as that of the Roman mosaic worker
who could select his material Of 10000
different tints, nor as that Of the Gobelins
weaver, who can recognize $4,000 differ
emit shades Of wool. But tho evidence
goes to show that the sense Of color is old
as tho gnawing Of hunger or the pangs OF
ifear-old as the experience that taught
living creatures to discern food and to flee
from danger. There is, however, reason
to suppose, from certain developmcntal
phenomena observed In tho eyes of chill
dren and newly born animals, that tho
present condition Of the color sense has
been gradually reached-not 30 much In
any particular species as In oil species
possessing it-Just us vision itself must
have been gradually acquired. Also
snowy colors must have been perceived
before tints could DO discerned; and even
now we know, through tho spectroscope,
that tho human eye is not yet developed
to the fullest possible perceptions of color.
Now tho first colors recognized by the
first eyes must have presumably been just
those we call primary-yellow, red, green,
blue. Yellow, the color of gold, Is also
tho color Of our sun; the brightest day
Light has more or less faint tinge even at
noon, according to the state Of tho atmos-
phere; and this tint deopens at sunrise
and sunset. Red is tho color OF blood-a
color allied necessarily from time imme-
mortal with violent mental impressions,
whether of war, Of love, or tho chase, or
religious sacrifice. Green itself Is the
color Of tho world. Dlue--the blue of the
far away sky-has necessarily always been.
for man the color most mysterious and
holy-always associated with those high
phenomena Of heaven which first inspired
wonder and fear of tho unknown. These
liqent life; and their impressions are to-
day the strongest So violent, indeed,
have they become to our refined sense,
that in apparel or decoration three Of
them, at least, are condemned when Of
fered pure. Even tho armies Of the world
are abandoning red uniforms; no refined
people wear flaming crimsons or scarlets
or yellows; nobody would paint house
or decorate wall with solid sheet OF
strong primary color. Blue Is still the
least violent, the most agreeable to the
artistic sense; and In subdued form 1t
hold, q place, In costume and In art, re-
FUSED to less spiritual colors.
TIE STRONGER EMOTIONS.
It must consequently he expected there
should exist some correlation between tho
primary colors and the stronger emotional
states Of man. And such, indeed, proves
20 be the case. Emotonally the colors
come in the order OF red, yellow, green
and blue. Red still appeals to the idea of
passion--for which very reason It's artistic
use Is being more and more restrained.
Very curious are the researches made by
Grant Allen showing this fact Of tho
use of red. In Swinburne's "Po-
ems and Ballads" tho same suppressed
work republished in this country under its
first title, Claus Veneris'D, the red cpl
thets appear l59 times, while gold, green
and blue words occur respectively Ids,
So and 25 times. In Tennyson's beautiful |
poem, ''The Princess" the red words &C.
cur only 20 times, the gold 2S, the green |
8, the blue once. With oil his exquisite |
sense of color, Tennyson is sparlng Of id
jectives-there is no false skin TO his |
work; IL Is solid muscle and bone.
Next to red, the most emotional color |
Is yellow-the color Of life, and Of what i
men seem to prize next to life, gold. We |
fancy we can live without green some |
times; IL comes third: but IL is the hue |
with oil tho lnbors Of man on |
tho earth since he began to labor. 1t is
the color of industry. Blue has always |
been, since man commenced TO think, and |
always will be, until he shall have ceased |
10 think, associated with his spiritual |
sense, his idea Of many gods or of |
One, his hopes Of O second life,
his faith, his good purposes, his per-
ception Of duty. sim, all who pray |
turn up their faces toward the eternal |
azure. And with the modern expansion
of the idea Of God, as with the modern |
expansion Of the idea Of the universe, the |
violet gulf Of space ever seems more mys- |
teal, its pure color more and more divine, |
and appeals TO us Is the color Of the I'm
the color Of the Holy Of Holes. |
New Orleans Times-Democrat.